Newsmen & Unions

Scarcely had Heywood Broun's genial, untidy bulk been laid in its grave last winter when the American Newspaper Guild, which he had founded, burst into a bedlam of argument and dissension, like a roomful of children whose teacher has departed. Charges that the Guild was ruled by a handful of Communists and fellow travelers came to a head last month at the Guild convention in Memphis (TIME, July 22) when rebellious Guildsmen tried in vain to install a new regime.

Last week, in Manhattan, a new menace had risen up to tease the Guild, a rival newsmen's union, the American News paper Writers Association. Organized one week after the Guild convention adjourned, A. N. W A. was the handiwork of Red-hating William Leonard Laurence, able science editor of the New York Times. Armed with a charter from A. F. of L. (which the Guild left to join C. I. O. in 1937), Rebel Laurence promptly put in a claim with Publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger to have his union designated sole bargaining agent for Times editorial workers.

Trade or Craft? Of the 1,467 Times employes who are eligible to join the Guild, about 350 are actual newsmen. The rest are advertising men, stenographers, file clerks, copy boys, scrub women, etc. The Guild claims 600 members on the Times, some 400 of them paid up. Bill Laurence holds that no more than 75 of these Times Guildsmen are editorial workers, claims that A. N. W. A. already has twice as many.

The Guild agreed to a separate election for 850 employes in commercial depart ments of the Times. That would leave 617 workers altogether in the editorial department. Bill Laurence fears that if clerks and copy boys are allowed to vote with newsmen, they will choose the Guild as their bargaining agent against the wishes of at least 80% of the news staff. He believes that no more than 25% of the Guild's 17,210 members are actual newspapermen; that the 75,000 U. S. news paper workers (editorial and commercial) are overwhelmingly opposed to the Guild's organization methods.

Apostate. Wizened, acidulous, 52-year-old Bill Laurence, born in Russia (real name: Siew), studied at Harvard, eventually took a law degree at Boston University when he was 37. In between, he served with the U. S. Army in France.

In 1926, Bill Laurence joined the old New York World as a reporter, moved on to the Times in 1930. Three years ago he won a Pulitzer prize for "distinguished service in the interpretation of science." Newsman Laurence knew Heywood Broun (who never got through Harvard) on the World and he was one of the Guild's first members when Broun founded it in 1933. For two years (1934-35) he was chairman of the Times Guild Unit. What finally turned him against it was "the increasing tyranny of Guild unionism."

Three days after the Guild convention ended last month, Bill Laurence sent in his resignation from the Guild. Thereupon, Bill Laurence learned that under Guild rules he cannot resign, can only be expelled. If the Guild had a Guild shop at the Times and he were expelled from the Guild he would also have to be discharged.

"Goodby, Boys. . . ." Last fortnight a Boston Globe reporter, Joseph Dinneen, a charter member of the Guild, onetime chairman of his unit, publicly repudiated the Guild in an article in The Saturday Evening Post. Title: Goodby, Boys, I'm Through.

Wrote Joe Dinneen, long a crusader against political bosses: "The Guild . . . went off on the wrong track when it became a trade union, and was lost when it ... undertook the regimentation of newspaper workers, and used scowling, whip-cracking and disciplinary tactics. . . .

And so, Mr. President, international vice presidents . . . distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I resign." A few days later, Diarist Eleanor Roose velt took note of Joe Dinneen's piece, admitted that some of his charges were true, concluded: "... I am not resigning." Peppery Columnist Westbrook Pegler, also a onetime Guildsman, who has been screaming "Communism!" at the Guild for the past ten months, wrote: "She is a privileged character who . . . is no more eligible for membership in the Newspaper Guild . . . than I am for membership in the D. A. R." These scattered onslaughts by no means added up last week to a full-fledged revolution in the Guild, but they boded no good for the Guild which has still to organize some 57,000 (three out of four) newspaper workers in the U. S.

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